Materials Up as Copper Hits Three-Year High -- Materials Roundup

Shares of commodities producers rose as the rally in industrial metals continued. Copper futures hit a three-year high, driving up shares of miners such as Freeport McMoRan, amid investor optimism about Chinese demand and tightening supplies. In a move that likely will constrain supply further, Glencore's unit in Zambia will lay off 4,700 miners amid an escalating spat over electricity tariffs with the state power utility. Activist investor Elliott Management scored a victory as BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner by market value, said it now plans to sell its onshore U.S. oil-and-gas operations. BHP executives reversed earlier resistance to Elliott's demands about the U.S. operations, conceding that the purchases of acreage in American "shale plays" and their development were ill-timed and that the Shares of Monsanto and Bayer rose despite warnings from the European Union that there were serious doubts among antitrust regulators about the viability of the seed makers' merger deal.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2017 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)